


Odd, Isn’t It?

by sinshifter



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Angel Crowley (Good Omens), First Meetings, M/M, Other, Raphael is pre!fall Crowley, Raphael! Crowley, ineffable husbands, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-30 15:20:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20099350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinshifter/pseuds/sinshifter
Summary: “Odd, isn’t it?”The angel startles. He’d thought he was alone, admiring the beauty of the newly formed Universe around him. He turns and sees another angel, and relief fills his soul. “Oh- hello there. Er, what’s odd?”The other eyes him curiously, then turns those piercing eyes onto their setting. “...Being. Being, when before we weren’t.”+Aziraphale meets Crowley for the first time twice.





	Odd, Isn’t It?

“Odd, isn’t it?”

The angel startles. He’d thought he was alone, admiring the beauty of the newly formed Universe around him. He turns and sees another angel, and relief fills his soul. “Oh- hello there. Er, what’s odd?”

The other eyes him curiously, then turns those piercing eyes onto their setting. “...Being. Being, when before we weren’t.”

“Yes, I suppose being brought into creation so suddenly is...strange.” The angel fumbles for words. He’s just discovered them, after all. “You are?”

“Raphael.” A heavy pause. “What is it? Why are you doing that with your face?”

“Sorry, please forgive me. I hadn’t realized you were, well, an archangel. I can leave, if you wanted this space.”

“Oh, don’t go on like that. Stay- Heaven’s plenty big enough for us both.”

Reluctantly, the common angel does. He was there first, but he still feels like he’s the one intruding. “Thank you. It’s just, we are supposed to defer to the archangels. They seem to like that thing. Gabriel, at least.”

“Gabriel’s a-” The other cuts off, like he’s surprised at himself. “Never mind. Who’s ‘we’?”

“You know...the rest of us. The ones the Almighty made lesser.”

Raphael shakes his head, lips curling with distaste. “You lot are not less than us, and we’re no better. We’re all equal.” He shakes his wings out; they shine like gold and are twice the size of the regular angel’s. “Besides these. But they’re just pretty to look at.”

The common angel feels a smile grow on his face. It’s his first one. “Very much so.”

“What was your name?”

“Aziraphale. Angel of the Eastern Gate.”

“Hello, Aziraphale. It’s wonderful to meet you.”

It really is.

+

Aziraphale can’t believe it. He’s been stunned into silence for so long that the demon shifts uneasily. He snaps out of it.

“I...I’m sorry. What was it you were saying?”

“I said, that one went down like a lead balloon.”

It’s Raphael. Except, it’s not. 

His Fall was the greatest hush to surf through the angels, and when Aziraphale found out his heart fell. He remembers his first encounter with the archangel vividly, still a bright blooming thing in his memory. Every interaction after that had been just as warming, but now, even with the sun shining down on them both in the garden, Aziraphale is very, very cold. 

“Oh. Yes.”

He looks shockingly the same- or almost. The demon’s once breathtaking wings are now shriveled against his back, burnt with hell fire. His eyes startle Aziraphale too- two yellow, beady ones. But besides that, Raphael is the same. Cascading amber curls, a teasing smile, a grace that reaches out to Aziraphale’s own, almost unconsciously. 

“I think it was a bit of an overreaction, to be honest.” Raphael says, undeterred by the angel’s silence. “I mean, first offense and everything. I can’t see what’s so bad about knowing the difference between good and evil, anyways.”

For a moment, Aziraphale doesn’t know if Raphael means Adam and Eve or himself. That stings, unexpectedly. 

“Well- well, it must be.”

He wants to ask. He’s not sure if he should. He tries, nonetheless.

“Do you…” Aziraphale clears his throat. Raphael, do you remember? What have you done? He swallows them down. “What is your name?”

The demon meets his eyes then and-

Oh. 

Aziraphale doesn’t even need to hear the words to know. He sees it. He sees that Raphael doesn’t remember. Not himself, not Aziraphale, not how much the angels and her loved him, not how beautiful he was or how bright his soul used to-

“Crawly,” the demon says. A heavy pause. “What is it? Why are you doing that with your face?”

He could tell him. He could. But what would be the good in that? 

He doesn’t.

“Sorry, please forgive me,” Aziraphale says hollowly. He smiles a small thing. “I’m Aziraphale. It’s wonderful to meet you.”

Crawly scrunches his face at that, genuinely confused, and the look deepens when Aziraphale stretches a wing to shield them both from the first rain.

Maybe he’ll tell him.

One day.

**Author's Note:**

> yeah buddy that hurts!!
> 
> thanks for reading I hope you enjoyed this little character study. follow me on ig @sinshifter for ineffable husbands fan art :-*


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